User plan/ Operation Saint
Operation Saint. A rewarding and grueling operation to take over a school, and start a self sustaining settlement. The main idea of this article can be taken and applied to any location you choose as well, making this like a guide of some sort. The Location I live in Darlington, South Carolina. It is a small county, with an even smaller city. There are many different historical and modern districts here, and I plan to use the historical one. Nearby, there is an elementary school, by the name of St. John's. It is a beautiful building, with mansion style architecture, brick walls, a perimeter fence, and many other buildings around campus. Phase 1 (Getting there) Phase 1. This will be sorta complicated (I did not say this would be difficult.) step. Now, when I think of this plan, (I don't necessarily think of a Zombie apocalypse. I believe that the most likely event to send this country into a dilapidated state would be either a nuclear war, or martial law that has gone for too long.) Back to Phase 1. The school itself has 6 key locations. The main building, the gym, the cafeteria, the 5th grade academy, the administration building, and the playground. (Each of these locations will be given a thorough explanation as tho how it is needed later on.) In order to get to St. John's, we will need to drive through the city itself, that's where the difficulty itself begins. When we arrive to the city, we will need to be cautious not to alert any zombies, or in our case, make any other survivors aware of my intentions. The location is just about central, so that is another downside, but later on it can become a plus. When (or if) my team and I arrive to the location, we will begin phase 2. Phase 2 (Clearing out) After phase 1 is complete, you move on to Phase 2. Obviously. Phase 2 will more than likely be the most physically difficult task. Phase 2 is to clear out any and all inhabitants by any means. There are 3 main scenarios that we have talked over, and have decided would be the most plausible. A.) The school has inhabitants with peaceful intentions. If there are survivors on the inside with peaceful, or neutral intentions then we will let them know our plan to turn the school into a stable base/location. If they agree to help us with Operation Saint, then they will be allowed to stay, and help with the following phases. This would be the easiest scenario. B.) The school has inhabitants that have violent intentions. If there are survivors inside with violent intentions, we will clear them out with force. This is not the ideal scenario for 2 main reasons. Reason 1, we could use all of the help that we could get. Reason 2, the gunshots/noises could attract other unwanted attention. C.) The school is uninhabited. This is simultaneously great, and terrible. Great, because we have nobody else to worry about regarding enemies, and moving in will be easier. Terrible, because like I mentioned before, my team and I could use all of the help that we could get. This would (more than likely) be the most difficult, because there will most likely be hostile survivors wanting to stake their claim on the building. Phase 3 (Moving in/ Fortifying) Phase 3. The fun part. Now this varies based on the person, but my team and I have been collecting resources for a while now. Little things like rebar and windows, to bigger things like plywood sheets and sheet metal. After the school if emptied out (or found to be empty) we will leave our defense expert and our medical expert at the location. The remainder of the team will go back to our resource supply and make frequent trips back and forth to bring supplies. Around this time, you should have people arriving to see what the commotion/noise is, and there could be potential settlers or friendly survivors. That's where Phase 4 comes into play. Phase 4 (Establishing St. John's) This following phase is only if you have done each prior Phase diligently. Phase 4 is establishing St. John's into a fully functional settlement/base. You have to make sure you have enough people to stand guard, enough food for a small city, enough water for all of those people (there is a water tower just meters from the school), and enough people to become self sufficient. Phase 4 is the longest Phase, here's the steps that are needed to make things happen. Step 1 (Establish Guards) I don't care if all of the people at your settlement all have miniguns and rocket launchers, you still have to have guards set at certain vantage points in order to cover ground and have a 24/7 hour view of the premises. Guards should be a little more well equipped than other settlers, but that depends on they types of settlers you will have. You'll want your guards to be high up to be able to see the area from a 360º angle. (Ours will be on top of the 5th grade academy, because of the flat roof, and the ability to build on top of it easily without damaging the structure.) Our guards will be armed with mostly Semi-Automatic rifles, however if we can't establish firearms that freely into our inventory, we will use bows (because they are fairly easy to make, along with the ammo.) Step 2 (Establish Farms) You can't have a settlement that is self sustained without a farm. In our case behind the school, to the west of the school, and the playground are all good areas for growing crops and planting trees (however the playground may be a bit too sandy.) Now that you have guards with eyes on the perimeter at all times, people can begin walking around the outside of the campus a bit more freely. Step 3 (Establish Scavengers) Here's who we are, and what we do. We agreed on the name The Scavengers a while ago, we even considered naming the St. John settlement "Rivet City" after the name of the reused carrier in the game Fallout 3. We set our sights on being one of the few groups who scavenge efficiently, and not only survive, but thrive off of it. Once you establish scavengers, you've established an almost steady income of all kinds of things. There are fast food joints, Ma & Pa restaurants, municipal buildings, houses, apartments, more shcools, armories, surpluses, and even more places in Darlington. If we've established everything else efficiently at this point then we're set. Step 4 (Establishing Trade Routes) In the event of a zombie apocalypse, or a SHTF scenario, there's definitely gonna be other friendly groups of survivors just trying to get by. Once you can establish a trade line or route, yo can establish allies, and have access to things that you may not have had before. It is a great way to make allies, and find other settlements. But be cautious, just as there are friendly survivors, there will be violent and aggressive ones too. They will try to steal your goods and kill your people, so make sure each caravan is well guarded. Caravan Plan The caravan plan is a side-plan developed by our Firearms pro. It consists of 4 vehicles. An armored van, any 2 SUV's with Bull Bar or Push Bumper, and a pickup truck. An SUV will be at the front and back of the caravan, with the pickup truck 2nd in line, the armored van will be 3rd in line. In the event of an attack on a caravan, the pickup truck will hold 2 men in the back, including the driver and passenger (they will be armed as they will be the guards of the caravan.) the SUV's will be fitted with light bars or and other source of bright light to scare off raiders, or blind enemies. You made it, now time for additionals! Congrats! You've finished reading through Operation Saint. It may not be the best thought out plan ever, but it is still our plan and criticism is accepted. Like I mentioned in the summary above, the different phases can be applied to any location really, and you can start your own settlement or base. Locations Above I mentioned that each location would have a detailed explanation as to what it is used for, and I didn't forget. The Main Campus The Main Campus is the tallest building. It may have 3 floors (equal to the amount the 5th Grade Academy has) but it is still taller, including the roof. The exterior is brick, and the windows are high, making it easy to fortify the windows, and it has strong enough walls to not have to worry about getting shot through. On the inside, there is a library with a computer lab, many rooms, the nurse's office, the main offices, meeting rooms, bathrooms and more. They can almost all be used as sleeping areas, and socialization areas. In the Main Campus, we plan to fortify this part 1st, because A, It's the biggest, and B, it would be the most important in the beginning. The Cafeteria The Cafeteria is a building of mixed emotions. It has big glass windows in the whole front, and a quarter of the sides, but it also contains a lot of cooking equipment, and maybe even some non-perishables. It would be hard to fortify on it's own, but if the school is cleared and has defenses, it should not be of too much worry for us. The Cafeteria is a 2 floored building, with the Cafeteria being on the bottom. The Cafeteria floor is obviously going to function as a food depot, and a Cafeteria, and we'd use the upper floors as storage. 5th Grade Academy The 5th Grade Academy is the 2nd largest building on the campus. It has 3 floors (one is built into the hill.) and it has a flat roof. Our main plan for the 5th Grade Academy, was to fortify the bottom 2 floors and use those as sleeping areas, and knock the stairs out of the 2nd to 3rd floor stairwell and replace them with ladders. The 3rd floor would be used for our Snipers, and our Guards. The very bottom floor has a door that leads out to the toad on the other side of the campus gate, this is both good and bad. We could always use the bottom floor's door an an entrance or exit, it would just have to be easily defended. The Gym While it may lack standard excercise equipment like the things at Planet Fitness or some place similar, it makes up for in size. On either side of the Gym there are rows upon rows of bleachers. These could all be used as bedding and sleeping areas, even under the bleachers too. There can be entertainment provided by playing with or using the sports equipment inside. There is roof access around the back, making it easy for a guard to pop a squat and keep a keen eye. The Administration Building I don't know much about the Administration Building, but from what I've observed, it's of no use. It is outside of the perimeter gate, and it has low windows on all sides. If we expanded the gates, it could be good for a sleeping area, but that isn't the plan. The Playground As all Playgrounds are this one has play equipment on it. That is good in our case. Things such as Geodesic domes, or monkey bars could be used to help fruits and vegetables with vines grow, and things like slides and swings could provide entertainment fo younger or maybe even older settlers. The only downside with the Playground is that the soil is fairly sandy, meaning we'd have to intently care for all crops, and maybe not even grow some others. Our Team We consist of several people, all specially skilled in our own way. I will not give any names, for I don't want anyone to be found out. Our skills are as follows: #Person A: An Afghanistan and Iraq veteran, our Firearms Expert. #Person B: Person A's wife, a Small Arms Expert and nuclear power plant security. #Person C: A Mechanic, skilled in Carpentry, and Farming. #Person D: A Hunter, Long Arms Expert. #Person E: A Botanist, a Farming Expert. #Person F: A Firefighter, a Melee Weapon Expert. #Person G: An E.M.T, our Medical Expert.